


Some Things, Only God Can Forgive

by Malorkai



Category: The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box (2014)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Blood, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24957676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malorkai/pseuds/Malorkai
Summary: There’s naught in the sky this night.No moon or stars; no heavenly guiding lights.Impossible not to get lost on a night like this, really.And when you’re lost in the darkness,only your monsters can find you.
Relationships: Will Charity/OFC, Will Charity/Original Female Character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	Some Things, Only God Can Forgive

He’d always told himself that he was meant to live this life forever. To himself and who knew him, he was the epitome of adventure; living one day at a time, confronting each obstacle as it came – adapting on the fly to survive. Will was certainly never one to doubt himself. After all, one must lend oneself a certain amount of bravado if they were to be rescuing precious antiquities from the grasp of evil on a consistent basis.

His stories enraptured those that were lucky enough to have heard them, yet they always came away with a feeling like the story had been altered somehow, and as Charity’s personality lends itself to the grandiose, they all believed he simply embellished the truth, as all great story tellers are wont to do. And he would continue to let them believe that version of the truth – that the falseness of his stories lay in their leanings towards exaggeration.

Will kept the reality of the truth for himself. If he kept it with him, the world could go on pretending that he was the dashing and daring explorer. Thwarting evil where so ever it may be encountered with his flaming sword of righteousness. The man that got his hands dirty to save humanity’s precious history. As long as they believed his hands were relatively clean, he could believe it too.

And he would never tell the true ending to his tales. It’s not the ending that anyone wants. No one wants to hear that when the sounds of battle fade, leaving behind only the relentless, sickening thud of his own heart in his brain, overruling everything else – that’s when Will’s fight for life really begins.

*****************************************************

_Will fell to his knees, a sickening crack landing on deaf ears as his knees drop to the surface of some horribly bleak and barren crag in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, overlooking an equally bleak and dismal expanse of ocean. The salt of the sea mingled unpleasantly with the copper tang in the air, leaving a rotten taste in the back of his throat while his lungs desperately worked to get oxygen back into his body._

_He didn’t dare look anywhere but directly ahead at the sea; he knew what he would find – bodies everywhere around him, some still with blood oozing from their recently fatal injuries. A scuffing sound alerted him to the tremors in his arms, the rough fabric of his sleeves rubbing where his arms hover over his thighs. Again, he knows he shouldn’t look, knows what he’ll see if he does, and this time, as every other time, he doesn’t look down._

_His world goes black as his eyes slam shut, his hands clench into fists as he uselessly fights to quiet the tremors wracking his body. But in the darkness, all he feels is the cool hilt of a blade once again in his hand, and of fresh, warm, free-flowing blood spilling out around it. His other hand is grasped at the back of another man’s shirt, using it to hold fast the other man to him, using the leverage to push the blade in further. At this, Will felt a sharp gasp of hot air invade his ear and neck, and his eyes snap open–_

There’s no body in his arms, no knife in his grasp.

He finds himself alone, his back pressed up against the cold stone of the small bridge he’d sheltered under last night during the storm. He wrung his hands together as he brought them to his chest, curling into himself while he willed the tremors still plaguing them to stop. The hands he held clasped to his chest were, to his relief, not wet with a sticky warmth as they were moments ago, but rather were quite cold and clammy from his nightmare. He lets himself slide sideways from the wall, falling onto his coat that he’d laid out on the wet mud beneath the bridge while he had stopped to rest.

It’s still black as pitch out -- the recent stormy weather ensured that there had been no soft moonlight to guide him during his long foot-journey home in the recent nights – so Will kept his eyes open, trying not to let his thoughts run as he stared up into the black thickness as he attempted to get his shaky breathing back under control.

He had fallen onto his bad side – a lovely reminder of the fun his jailers had had while they had him shackled to the wall; arms spread far apart as they took turns beating him with a heavy mallet.

During one of those rounds he felt already cracked ribs fracture. He had felt the pain so acutely that when he closed his eyes, he could see within his chest to the lines of those very fractures as they ran the length of several ribs on his right side.

His screams had died away long ago, Will too exhausted to waste energy on yelling. But as he felt the fissures run through the bones in his chest, a wet, choking sob escaped him and was followed by what was too much blood to have been from any injury in his mouth.

Like his body felt obliged to reenact his memories, he felt the now familiar pressure build deep in his chest, and soon he found himself putting more weight on his bad side as he twisted his body to keep from choking on the new blood welling up from his lungs. Pain exploding through his chest wrought a deep wailing moan from Will that he hadn’t thought himself currently capable of. It rung in his ears, and the loudness of it seemed to travel an eternity in the still forest night.

Instinct from years in the service took over, and his body went stock still, trying to focus itself now to listen for any other sounds in the night. He knew his pursuers were still out for him, and though he was taking the least traveled trails through the thick forest, he had been more frequently begun picking up signs of regular hunting and travel on the trails, leading him to believe he wasn’t far off from a town or village.

After a few moments of continued silence, he relaxed slightly, noticing that the slight adrenaline burst had helped his tremors to stop and pushed the pain back to a tolerable level. Taking a few moments to prepare for the inevitable torture moving would be, he forced his right arm under him and pushed, managing to sit himself back up against the wall.

The storm seemed to have broken whilst he was out, and tears welled up in his eyes as he saw a few clouds part, and a beam of moonlight came filtering down through the black tree canopy, Forcing his mind out of its grim patterns, Will took as deep a breath as he could manage and grabbed his coat, and somehow was able to maneuver his legs underneath him.

Leaning heavily on the wall, Will managed to hoist himself to standing. His whole body now shook, but he was upright, and that was enough achievement to lift his spirits. He knew he had to keep moving. If he was right and there was some sort of civilization around here, it was likely his only chance to get himself away from his pursuers long enough that he could heal before finishing what he’d come to the highlands to do.

Taking one on one last relatively deep breath, Will looked once more to the sky, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips, his demons momentarily chased away by the soft light of the moon.

_“You can do this, old boy. You’re Captain Will Charity, greatest adventurer of all—"_

Another wet cough broke him out of his inner pep talk and the hand not holding his coat and bracing against the wall flew to cover his mouth reflexively.

When he pulled it away, the fresh blood shone black in the moonlight. He had to find somewhere to rest, and soon.


End file.
